


The Infanta

by simplyprologue



Series: Careful the Tale You Tell (Children Will Listen) [4]
Category: The Newsroom (US TV)
Genre: Babies, Charlotte-fic, Fluff, Gen, Post - Season 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-11
Updated: 2014-10-11
Packaged: 2018-02-20 19:16:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2439827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/simplyprologue/pseuds/simplyprologue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leona Lansing comes to collect her grandchild.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Infanta

**Author's Note:**

> **A/N:** Originally written for Allie and posted to my tumblr, but moving it over here for archive purposes.

The hazard of bringing your twelve week old to the workplace is that any and all actual work immediately ceases and your employees start squabbling over who gets to hold her first. But the Speaker of the House is coming onto the show tonight, and Jim’s not comfortable handling the interview solo and Mac wouldn't let him anyway, so as a result  _News Night_ is currently in the middle of a rather impromptu “Take Your Daughter to Work Day.”

Still, the last thing Will expects is to walk back from a brief sojourn to his office (to retrieve a report on polling data out of Vanderbilt that he had forgotten) and into the conference room to find Leona in the seat he usually occupies at the head of the table with Charlotte in her arms.

“Come on, now that the McDouble have settled into domestic bliss with the McNugget here,” Leona says imperiously, pausing to make a gooey face at Charlotte, who is currently asleep, wrapped in favorite off-white cashmere nursing blanket, “there have to be two of you with some unbearably unrequited inter-office shenanigans. I know you types run on a high octane blend of sexual frustration and melodrama.”

The senior staff is, quite literally, a captive audience.

Will wonders where Mac, who had been holding their daughter in a last-ditch attempt to circumvent a godparent-off between Jim and Sloan, has gone off to. And then he realizes that Mac probably figured that handing Charlotte off to Leona (who’s taken to referring to her as her  _grandbaby_  much to either Reese’s annoyance, or Pruitt's) would gift her a good fifteen minutes to occasion graphics or tech or whoever before the rundown meeting starts.

“Now, if he—or she, or whoever they are, none of you have enough free time to be picky, in my opinion—doesn’t give you the same feelings you get when the pizza guy arrives, he’s probably not worth it,” Leona says sagely, rocking Charlotte while nodding knowingly at Tess, who seems entirely too entranced by the CEO of AWM to mean anything good.

Maggie licks her lips before leaning in closer, almost conspiratorial in posture. “Mrs. Lansing—”

Will decides it’s probably for the best to interrupt before this devolves any further.

“Weren’t you just shoving the end-of-quarter reports in my face a week ago?” he asks pointedly, striding into the room. “I have a show to run. Trust me, Mac already meddles enough in their love lives."

Leona ably shifts Charlotte into one arm to wave him off. “Please, McAvoy.”

Vaguely taking in the amused faces of his senior staff, Will decides that they’re all going to suffer after he gets Leona back up to the 44th floor so he can get this meeting on the road.

He sighs, looking down over Leona’s suit-clad shoulder at the sleeping infant. “I know you know that Speaker Boehner is—”

She snorts. “No, no, I didn’t ask how you’re going to lose Pruitt today, I want to see my princess.”

Will sighs even louder, and takes note that Maggie, Tess, Tamara, and Neal are  _all_  giggling, but recognizes that he doesn’t have the time to negotiate with terrorists. And for whatever it’s worth, it appears that Charlotte has decided to take her afternoon nap early, and probably won’t need to be fed for another couple of hours.

“Her diaper bag is right there, if you want to—”

Abruptly, Leona stands, conceding his chair back to him with an unnatural goodwill. Will forcibly reminds himself that Leona Lansing is not the sort of person he can afford to say no to, and she did manage to raise Reese, so—

With a dictatorial hand gesture, Leona stands and directs Martin into handing her the designer diaper bag that had been a gift from someone or other.

“Yes, perfect,” she says briskly, securing the baby firmly in her grip. “The board meeting starts in twenty minutes and god knows none of the babies there are as adorable as this one. You know where to find me, I know where to find McMac.” Leona nods at Tess specifically. “You and me, we’ll chat later.”

And with that, she sweeps out of the room.

When Mac returns five minutes later with Jim at her heels, he has no idea how to explain what just happened.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
